I regularly hear from colleagues, friends, and family to be careful on my bicycle. Everyone worries that I’ll fall, or get run over… and certainly we are all aware that road deaths for cyclists are common (though perhaps not as common as traffic deaths for car drivers and occupants but I don’t have comparative per capita data on that so I’ll give it a pass for now).

What I don’t ever hear is that I should be careful just walking out the door. Clearly, I need someone to warn me. I was walking out of the house on the driveway Tuesday night; I didn’t see the black ice on the new tarmac and I FLIPPED. It was a spectacular Wyle. E. Coyote style flip with my feet straight up in the air, above my head, and with my torso plummeting. I managed to reach up and protect my head against a meeting with the ground (for, in the end, I really am a ‘brain on sticks’, and can afford for almost anything except my head to be injured), but I landed squarely on my shoulder and bounced on my hip. I was winded, and I seem to be bruised deep in the flesh… still waiting for the marks to surface. My whole upper right quadrant is pretty damned stiff and sore… so: no biking for me, probably for another week or so.